MailChimp
If you are not getting our “mailchimp”-branded email messages, please sign up at http://eepurl.com/djdUyf. This is important, even if you aren’t attending our meetings regularly, so that we can reach you at short notice about City Hall hearings or other events where we need folks to show up en masse.
If you have signed in at a meeting but have not started getting email, please use the link and sign up again. We probably had trouble reading your handwriting.
If you get these mailings and there’s something wrong — your name misspelled, whatever — please click on the “update” link at the bottom of the email and review and change the details. You can fill in missing info (like phone numbers or mailing addresses) if you like, and also check off the Committees you want to hear from.
If you are getting emails at multiple addresses and you like that, fine. If you don’t like it, you can use the link at the bottom to unsubscribe from the one(s) you don’t want to get. But please be careful and check your “Committee memberships” on any record you plan to delete; you may want to then edit the record you are keeping, to stay on that Committee.
Getting an Account
Most of what the SFLCD does is entirely open to all — like this Web site.
However, in order to comment on some documents — and especially to join interactive discussions — we do require you to be authenticated. (Otherwise we get flooded by spam, or worse.) The way we do this is by giving you an account, with a username (something@sflcd.org) and a password.
Note that this is, in fact, an email account. However, if you don’t wish to be bothered with checking a second mailbox, and you don’t feel the need to send email “From” your sflcd.org address, we can help you set up forwarding so everything sent to this account gets automatically forwarded to your regular, personal emailbox. It’s up to you. (See “Forwarding?” section, below.)
So, how to proceed? We want to make it easy for you, but it is necessary, and we appreciate your patience.
First, send an email to our GSuite Administrator, Dahn, requesting an account and telling us the name you would like to use. By default, your username will be set up as firstname.lastname@sflcd.org, but if you have a unique preferred handle (something that you are actually known by), we are happy to set you up as preferredname@sflcd.org instead.
Dahn will respond to your email request by generating an email from “The G Suite Team” with a “reset password” link — click on the link to set your password and you’re in!
Email Setup
The easiest way to access your sflcd.org email is to browse to http://mail.sflcd.org. You will need to log on with your username and password (at least the first time, and again occasionally when Google decides to ask for it.) As always, you can configure the email to look and act in various ways. Click on the gear-like “Settings” icon in the upper right and choose “Settings” for more options, including the option to turn on email forwarding. (See below.)
If you need help configuring your computer, smartphone or other device, please ask us for help.
Note that our MailChimp mailing list is not integrated with this system. We will continue to send meeting announcements and such to your personal email account, unless you request otherwise. [Send your request to david.hyman {at} sflcd.org and be sure to include both your old, personal address and the new one.you want us to use. ]
Forwarding?
You now have an sflcd.org account. Use it in good health. However, if you have decided that you prefer to have all your sflcd.org email forwarded to some other existing personal email account, follow these instructions:
- Browse to http://mail.sflcd.org and logon with your fresh new sflcd.org account and password.
- (Optionally, read the welcome and other email messages waiting for you there. If you find them interesting, you can forward them to your personal account.)
- Now find the icon in the upper right that looks like a gear; click it and choose “Settings”.
- When the settings page loads, click on the words “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” near the top center.
- Click on the “add a forwarding address” button near the top. Enter your preferred personal email address.
- Wait a few seconds, then check that other email inbox for a message, and follow the instructions to verify that you requested this forwarding.
- You can now close the “GSuite” email window and never bother with it again.
Documents
You are now ready to start commenting on SFLCD documents, or even creating new documents on the sflcd.org drive. (All documents on this drive become property of the SFLCD, of course.)
If you don’t already have Google Drive working on both your computer and smartphone, we would strongly encourage installing it. Apple users can install it from here, Android users here. Alternatively, browse to https://drive.google.com.
Note that even without Google Drive, you can access any documents that we send you a link to: just provide your sflcd.org credentials when requested. But (among other things) having Google Drive makes it much easier to find older documents (Hint: Look in the “Shared with me” folder within Google Drive.)
Another tip: If you ever are denied access to a file, or seem unable to comment on it, double-check that you are logged into the GSuite account.
Chat
Next, we encourage you to install the “Google Hangouts Chat” (aka @Chat) app (available for Android or iOS) on your mobile device. On your computer, you can install the app, or just use Chrome and browse to https://chat.google.com, then sign in with your G Suite account.
When installing the app, be careful: you want the “Hangouts Chat” app — the one with the “@” icon, authored by “Google LLC”. There is also something called “Google Hangouts” (with a quote-mark icon). that is for personal chatting, not for use with GSuite. And there are tons of other similarly-named apps.
You should find @Chat very much like Slack (if you have used that), but better integrated with the other Google apps. Taking time to view a Youtube video like this one, or read an intro like this one, could be very helpful.
Within @chat, be sure to join the “rooms” for all the Committees you are serving on; you can also create your own special purpose rooms, or do one-on-one or group chat with anyone within the sflcd.org community. Be aware, though, that you can’t use this app to chat with folks who do not have sflcd.org accounts.
Share and Enjoy!
That should get you started. In the future, we hope to test and set up “bots” to help us schedule meetings or conduct polls, or maybe even use Google Hangouts Meet for remote access to our meetings.
Be aware that any content in your sflcd.org account — documents you create on our server, even the contents of messages you send and receive on it — is the property of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District organization. So please use this resource appropriately. Thanks!
Please do let us know if you have problems using any of this stuff. We aren’t exactly the Tech Squad, but we would happy to help. You can reach us at dahn@sflcd.org, or david.hyman@sflcd.org.
